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Twin Existences [improved]

boon

Sponsor

Twin Existences is virtually about the discovery of a parallel universe, and of people trying to access the energy from it.

Alright, the main idea is this:
You (the player) live in the suburbs of a large city, on a day like today, where everything is normal. You know of experiments that are going on, and how scientists are trying to unravel the secret of time travel. All of a sudden, there is a catacalysmic explosion in the city, and the entire science sector is demolished in a flash of purple light. No one truly knows what happened. Slowly, things begin to change. People begin to appear, people who died years and years ago, as if they were zombies. Strange creatures fade in and out, and sightings of aliens and ghosts flood the papers.

Now, for the in-depth plot analysis.

Okay basically what's going on is that the scientists are trying to discover a way to travel back in time. Instead, they get thrown into a strange rip in time and space, in which everything is strange and distorted. Struggling through this, without being killed, they discover a universe not unlike ours, in which it is virtually the same, apart from slight variances including different friendships and different styles. As soon as the scientists return, they begin working on taking control of this universe, while not realising that time and space are slowly falling apart. The 'Ghosts' are actually people in the other universe who have only partially been brought here. They are insane and can walk through walls, due to being in unexplainable pain. The aliens are technology from a third universe that is overseeing the destruction of this one. Occasionally they try to interfere, you must remove them when this happens. The zombies are essentially people who got brought over through the rip. The strange creatures, are beings from the distorted world that have jumped through.

----features

The main features about this game are probably the slight free-roaming part of it. You can buy 'safe-houses' which the police will lose you when you go in. You can customize these houses with your own furniture, similar to Pokemon's concept. The game will be 100% original graphics, no RTP.

I plan to throw in some additional fun features, such as costumes, choosing between a male and female character, and I guess a few more -- if anyone has some ideas, please say.

Work in Progress.
 
Lookz good to me! :cheers:

all jokes aside, I have a few questions for you Mr. Oboona:

1. I dont really think there would be any Ranches by a capital, much less a futuristic city either, but, then again, I dont really know, living in NYC.

2. Uh, i dont know out the protagonist, but if i had a diamond worth $4000, I wouldnt keep it. I'd sell it, especially if I was a rancher (or son of one). Is there some story to it, like did his grandpa give it to him, or is it just some diamond that VERY coincedentally just appeared on the floor.

3. Am I missing something or did some company just blame you for stealing? How did tey know it was you?
WHat'd you supposedly steal (even though I can guess)

All in all, this kind of sounds semi-generic. I dont feel an oomph when I see the story. A guy from a ranch goes to the city to clear his name, at the end, he fights the owner of a large corp. And I'm 92% sure I know who the person next to the owner is.
 

boon

Sponsor

Tachiba":jf6b488k said:
Lookz good to me! :cheers:

all jokes aside, I have a few questions for you Mr. Oboona:

1. I dont really think there would be any Ranches by a capital, much less a futuristic city either, but, then again, I dont really know, living in NYC.

2. Uh, i dont know out the protagonist, but if i had a diamond worth $4000, I wouldnt keep it. I'd sell it, especially if I was a rancher (or son of one). Is there some story to it, like did his grandpa give it to him, or is it just some diamond that VERY coincedentally just appeared on the floor.

3. Am I missing something or did some company just blame you for stealing? How did tey know it was you?
WHat'd you supposedly steal (even though I can guess)

All in all, this kind of sounds semi-generic. I dont feel an oomph when I see the story. A guy from a ranch goes to the city to clear his name, at the end, he fights the owner of a large corp. And I'm 92% sure I know who the person next to the owner is.

Alright um, I guess he can live in suburbs, then :P I guess I agree to an extent, if he lived in a ranch he'd sell the diamond. Okay maybe I'll change it to a meteorite with some weird crystals on it he found when an asteroid crashed in the fields? Anyway he is blamed for stealing the meteorite.

If anyone has any ideas on how to oomph the story, please say :)
 

oboys

Member

I don't mean to sound harsh but this needs a complete rewrite unless the story is not considered an important part of the game. First off, you may choose a theme for the story, like man versus nature, what is the meaning of life, who can we trust, to what extent can we do as we like. Likewise, you should choose a way in which character develops in the story or else the story will seem shallow. This does not necessarily mean that the character(s) must change but that would be easier. Try working out the details of the story and make sure it is consistent, this will shape your game into something unique and may come to change the entire story. In particular, make sure you work on the motivation behind why someone does one thing or the other. The simplest example being that noone is simply "evil", there's a reason. Your game needs more conflict.

Here's an excellent link: http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=264375.
 

boon

Sponsor

Well, I agree to an extent yeah.

The whole idea of the story is like one world discovering a parallel universe that is intertwined with theirs, and if the parellel universe isn't destroyed both universes will be destroyed in the collision.
 
I find it weird that people would be afraid of strange things going on at the top of a mountain, especially if they're virtually the same as us and more technologically advanced. I can't see nobody ever going to check it out with their advanced technology, especially if these strange events are happening so close to a large city. Surely the police or some sort of authority would have inspected it and found out what was going on if it was worrying the public?

I'm wondering when exactly the character leaves the ranch/suburbs? And when is it that you're outside late at night, sitting on a hill staring at the mountains?

And I'm confused as to why the police are chasing him. You really need to tell us the reason he's suddenly a criminal and being blamed for theft. I'm going to guess it has something to do with the other universe but I still don't know why.

How does the antagonist gain control of the universe? How does he relate to the main character? And give us the spoilers-we need to know what happens if we want to critique it. ;)

One more thing-how did the universes get to overlap? I don't have a very good grasp of the idea right now. Were they always like this? Or was there an event that made them begin to intertwine? How is it that the you in the other dimension gets to this one? (I'm going to guess this is what happens but correct me if I'm wrong)

The main problem I see right now is that I don't see how any of the events in the game are related to each other. It seems really broken up right now and they aren't put together very well. oboys is right-consider rewriting this in a way that makes the game flow better. Keep the "twin existences" idea, since it's a nice one and can lead to some interesting possibilities, but at least try and keep things consistent and include more motivation for the character's actions. oboys has also got a point about the theme, since it seems pretty jumbled at the moment. Keep a clear, concise main theme, maybe get one or two smaller themes, and stick with 'em.

Just a curious question-will the game have battles? And if so, how do you think you'll handle them?
 

boon

Sponsor

Thank you so much for the crits, infact I'm going to completely rewrite it -- maybe have them less technologically advanced :P
 
So the parallel universe needs to be destroyed in order to save humankind, but what of the inhabitants of that other world? Does the story sympathise with them as well? You could really make for some nice moral and emotional conflictions if you perhaps make one of the protagonists an alien from that world who is in the exact mirror situation of your main character.
 

boon

Sponsor

Well, reflectively speaking this is what I mean.
tangent%20universe.png


In both diagrams, the green dots represent when time is the same.

The image on the left represents a tangent universe - a theoretical universe which has essentially broken off from our own universe, thus at the time of the split is exactly the same as the original universe, but at the time of collission is too different to form back into the primary universe, thus unless the tangent is removed, both universes will end. This theory of tangent universe featured in a film called Donnie Darko, which explains that tangents are caused by any form of time travel. In the original universe, Donnie dies. However, he lives in the tangent and must let himself die at the collission (when the dates are both the 2nd and 30th of october, simultaneously) to remove the tangent. Confusing.

The image on the right represents a parallel universe. This is a universe that has infinitely been close to, and near similar to our universe until a warp occurs and it will collide with our universe, unless, well, in the same basis as the first image. One universe must go.

I think, however, I could write in that they somehow manage to warp the universe back or something. It's a little gruesome to let 7 or so billion people die instantly just to save another 7 billion.
 
You could always make part of the game into a "we have a way to divert the course of !!*<[THE X UNIVERSE]>*!! so there won't be a collision, but that means we have to find so and so! ((cue second quest))
 

boon

Sponsor

Yeah, Donnie Darko tops my fave films.

Well, sadly due to the fact that this is a parallel universe and not a tangent, this means that time travel does not come into play. However, the warp is caused due to a point in time in which both human races on either universe are trying to discover how to travel through time and space, and accidentally open a warp (a theoretical black hole) that continues to warp the two universes until their ultimate fate.

Edit: @Ryanide: yeah, that sounds good. :) thanks.
 
It seems you've put a lot of thought into how these two universes coincide. I like the idea, man. I'm going to keep an eye on this one.
 

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